We Baby Boomer kids were fascinated with bubbles. I don't know, maybe all kids share that love, but I personally have lots of fond memories of childhood that involve bubbles of all sorts.
For instance, take Mr. Bubble. In the 60's, no bath was complete without a heaping mass of white bubbles caused by a capful of Mr. Bubble tossed into the running water. What made it so essential to bath time? That endless string of commercials, that's what! Here's a sound file from one I remember well.
There's probably not a single American kid from the 60's that didn't grow a Mr. Bubble beard.
Another bubble phenomenon we all loved was buying a bottle of bubbles for a nickel. It was a little container containing a plastic hoogis that had rings on each end, designed to be dipped into the soapy stuff and either (a) waved through the air, making a string of little bubbles, or (b) slowly blown into by a child with just the right amount of exhaled air, thereby creating a massive vesicle (sorry, but hey, there just aren't many good synonyms for bubble!) of eight or more inches in diameter.
You could also pour the soap solution into a pan and place a massive plastic ring about a foot wide into it and make some truly gargantuan orbs of next-to-nothingness (I came up with that one myself). The manufacturer of the aforementioned giant bubble maker (Wham-O, I believe) also had another big ring with dozens of smaller holes, so you could create a miniature blizzard of smaller sized bubbles.
The bubble pipe was a prime example of a really cool looking product that was disappointing in actual performance. A perfectly designed bubble pipe would have sent a flurry of globelets (I'm seriously starting to run out of synonyms here) skyward with a healthy blast of breath. Instead, it simply produced a flaccid froth, which dripped down the edges of the triune plastic bowls and unceremoniously hit the ground.
Boomers who purchased Pontiac Fieros in the 80's experienced a similar letdown.
Then, there was Super Elastic Bubble Plastic. Just try getting THIS product approved for sale to kids today. It consisted of a tube full of polyvinyl acetate dissolved in acetone, with plastic fortifiers added. The acetone evaporated upon bubble inflation leaving behind a solid plastic film. You rolled up a small circle of said concoction, then inserted a straw and slowly blew into it. All was well, as long as you were in a well-ventilated are, and you did a Bill Clinton. But if you DID mess up and inhale, you got yourself a lungful of fumes that weren't good for you.
However, the semi-rigid bubbles would last, and last.
Then, there was Bubble-Up pop. "A kiss of lemon, a kiss of lime." The now-obscure soft drink was immortalized in Merle Haggard's hit Rainbow Stew. "We'll all be drinkin' that free Bubble-Up, and eatin' that rainbow stew!" Introduced in 1919, it was still around and distributed by Coca-Cola when we were kids. Then Sprite came along, and Bubble-Up slipped into obscurity, although someone out there is still making it. You can get it here, if you're so inclined.
Nowadays, I prefer my bubbles in a bedtime bourbon and coke. But we kids of the 60's sure had a lot of fun with them back in our day.
Comments (2)
I remember having a huge bubble wand that made giant bubbles and then another with alot of holes in it, but I can't remember the name. I'm pretty sure it was from Wham-o. I thought it was called Zillion Bubbles or something like that but google comes up with nothing.
Posted by Rhonda | April 12, 2007 7:34 PM
Posted on April 12, 2007 19:34
another product with a distinctive smell....I love all those industrial additives they put in food and toys in those days. Hippie's seemed to take to the bubble thing quite readily, and made the 60's that much more freaky. If I had a nicke for every picture of a flower-child with granny glasses blowing bubbbs I'd be rich as Carlos Slim(who just passed William Gates III, by the way, for richest humanoid).
Posted by scott | July 17, 2007 2:00 AM
Posted on July 17, 2007 02:00